Is Chris Pratt the Best Chris? No, Chris Pine is. But is he the worst? It depends on who you ask. He played the funniest character on one of the funniest sitcoms of the 2010s, and he’s terrific in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as that doofus Star-Lord. But there have been frequent calls to recast him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for his association with the “infamously anti-LGBTQ” Hillsong Church, including this week when a side-by-side photo of Pratt and Patrick Wilson went viral on Twitter. “Marvel. Hear me out. Just… replace him,” the tweet reads. Like his wife and other MCU stars before him, Guardians director and writer James Gunn came to Pratt’s defense.
“For what? Because of your made-up, utterly-false beliefs about him? For something that someone else told you about him that’s not true? Chris Pratt would never be replaced as Star-Lord but, if he ever was, we would all be going with him,” Gunn tweeted in response to the Pratt/Wilson photo. He added, “He isn’t. I know the church he currently goes to. Do you? (The answer is you don’t, but you heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone where he goes to church, so decided, ‘yeah, okay, I’ll believe this terrible thing I heard online about this celebrity!’).”
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1518635085943164928
Pratt previously defended the “cult-y” church after actor Elliott Page tweeted that “if you are a famous actor and you belong to an organization that hates a certain group of people, don’t be surprised if someone simply wonders why it’s not addressed. Being anti LGBTQ is wrong, there aren’t two sides. The damage it causes is severe. Full stop.” The Jurassic World star commented that “nothing could be further from the truth. I go to a church that opens its doors to absolutely everyone.” Pratt added that “everyone is entitled to love who they want free from the judgment of their fellow man,” but did not directly address Hillsong’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights.
(Via James Gunn on Twitter)
